Then when you know you have to show this tipsy, like onClick on those events, define onclick function of those images as:

$(".colour_tip_<?php echo($f['colour_id']); ?>").tipsy("show");
//also if you need to hide them on click/onfocus you can use this:
//$(".colour_tip_<?php echo($f['colour_id']); ?>").attr('onclick', "hideTipsyOnMe(this);");

where hideTipsyOnMe is

function hideTipsyOnMe(div){
$(div).tipsy('hide');
}

ANother way is to have a tipsy when you hover over that element (which I think is not what you want here but still),

Just put a title tag on your element on which you need a tipsy on hover and use